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PITTSBURGH — Baseball's awards races are winding down, and the Baseball Writers Association of America has some difficult choices to make in the four voting categories for each league. Mike Trout, Clayton Kershaw and Jose Abreu appear to be shoo-ins for American League MVP, National League Cy Young and AL Rookie of the Year, respectively. But the other categories — including the two Manager of the Year awards — may come down to the final weeks. On the flip side, there are also some interesting races shaping up for the worst performances of the 2014 season. Here's how one man's ballot would be shaping up, if these awards actually existed: Least...

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PITTSBURGH — Baseball's awards races are winding down, and the Baseball Writers Association of America has some difficult choices to make in the four voting categories for each league.
Mike Trout, Clayton Kershaw and Jose Abreu appear to be shoo-ins...

I've noticed over the past few years, it seems the Cubs are the only team that continues to deploy a left and right-handed lineup card depending on the starting pitcher. To me, that seems like it would be hard for anyone to get in a groove. Why not just...

American League
Central Division
White Sox: Rush hour: Promote top draft pick Carlos Rodon from Class A to Triple A after four appearances.
Indians: Surgery on both knees ends disappointing season for Nick Swisher. Still two years left on $56 million...

Bardball didn't start from a deep love of poetry, but from a swelling revulsion of Barry Bonds.In 2007, friends were emailing scathing limericks back and forth about the chemically enhanced slugger. They were too funny to waste, so Stuart Shea and I...

Never underestimate Mike Ilitch's appetite for a championship.
While the Tigers loved what they got from Anibal Sanchez a year ago, they didn't have $80 million budgeted to keep him off the free-agent market. But that's what Dave Dombrowski persuaded...

Yu Darvish and the Texas Rangers had hoped the tightness felt by the three-time All-Star in his triceps during his spring training debut was nothing to be concerned about. Instead, an MRI exam late Friday revealed just about the worst news possible....

Everyone expects the Dodgers to win. They did last year, and they just put up $215 million for Clayton Kershaw, to better their chance to win for many years to come.
No one expects the Angels to win. They sat out the playoffs last year — for the fourth...

Yawn, the Dodgers are still there. Still looking extremely formidable, but with precious little new activity to get the fan base all riled anew.
And it could easily end this way, too, the Dodgers filling some utility and bullpen roles and still heading...

TEMPE, Ariz. -- A pair of key Angels relievers returned to the club for the first time since their season-ending injuries last summer, one clearly on track to start the regular season and the other one a little iffy.
Right-hander Kevin Jepsen said before...

What was just another Saturday night game for the Dodgers was something of far greater significance for Hyun-Jin Ryu.
The Dodgers left-hander rarely has had as many eyes on him as he did in this game against the Cincinnati Reds, which marked his first...

The All-Snubbed team
It's called the All-Star game — but not all the stars who deserve to play in the exhibition will be at Citi Field on Tuesday.
Some missed their flights to New York because of the rule requiring each team to have at least one...

Pac-12 Conference Commissioner Larry Scott is sticking around for at least five more years.
The Pac-12's university presidents and chancellors extended Scott's contract Monday through the 2017-18 academic year. As part of the extension, Scott also was...

And now presenting those loooosing Dodgers. That’s right, the Dodgers -- destroyers of worlds -- are in a funk.
They fell, 4-3, in 10 innings to the Cincinnati Reds, leaving them with their first three-game losing streak in three months.
Three losses...

TEMPE, Ariz. — As kids, Sean Burnett and Prince Fielder were teammates on a travel ball team in Florida.
The team was called The Juice, and packed with 11- and 12-year-olds. Rickie Weeks played second base. Chet Lemon, the former major league outfielder,...

As often is the case, this offseason has been about the rumor mill and the Orioles, with nearly every free agent attached to the club.
That’s kind of the drill this time of year – especially for the Orioles, who always have holes that need to be filled...

While the Orioles' trade of closer Jim Johnson late Monday night immediately offered more questions than answers about the club's direction this offseason, executive vice president Dan Duquette insisted Tuesday that the deal can't truly be evaluated for...

Orioles manager Buck Showalter calls it “having too much want-to,” those critical moments when his players' effort doesn't match up with their execution. He's had to use the phrase far too often over the past 12 games. The offense's struggles continue...

On a steamy, late June afternoon in which the greatest manager in club history was immortalized with a statue at Camden Yards, the Orioles blasted anEarl Weaver-special three-run homer and witnessed a brief managerial tirade.
Otherwise, there weren't a...

Orioles right-hander Miguel Gonzalez allowed five runs in the first – and seven runs total – in 2 2/3 innings Wednesday night against the Rays.It halted the Orioles’ season-best seven straight quality starts.Gonzalez allowed a home run on the first...